Minnesota High School Sections Preview

The Minnesota High School League Nordic skiing section championships are set to fire up this week as skiers have had to deal with another poor winter for the southern parts of our region.  For the northern skiers, Mother Nature has been a bit kinder -- both Section 7 and Section 8 will be racing on natural snow for their meets, located at Giants Ridge and Maplelag Resort respectively.   The metro area sections will use the snowmaking venues, making it a busy week for Twin Cities skiers.

Note to spectators:   Please do everything possible to avoid spreading dirt onto any of the trails.  Avoid crossing trails as much as possible and certainly don't walk on the courses.

Note to other skiers:  In the Twin Cities, three of the four snowmaking venues will be in use for sections:  Hyland (Mon, Tue), Wirth (Wed, Thu), Battle Creek (Tue, Thu).  The schedule ensures at least two of the four venues are open to public skiing every day (Elm Creek is not hosting sections), so just review the schedule before you head out.

Advancement

The section format and advancing remains unchanged:

• 5K classic and 5K freestyle races (the latter race a pursuit format start) along with two-person team sprints
• Each team can race five skiers in the 5K classic and freestyle pursuit races, and just two in the two-person team sprints
• The team sprint consists of two skiers, each skier doing two laps of a 1.2-1.5K course, alternating each lap, in relay format
• Skiers can not participate in both the pursuit races and team sprints
• While all five skiers in the pursuit races will generate points, only the top three from each team will count toward their pursuit team score.  Points start at 80 points for first team and decrease by one point for each finisher
• Team sprint scores start at 159 points and decrease by three points for each finishing two person pairing
• Team score is calculated adding together the pursuit team score and the team sprint score.   Maximum team score would be 396 points (237 pursuit + 159 team sprint)
• The top two teams advance (5 pursuit skiers + 2 team sprint skiers)
• The top four pursuit individuals not from the advancing teams qualify
• The top two-person sprint team that is not from the advancing teams also qualifies
• A total of 40 skiers (20 boys and 20 girls)

The current team tie breaker rules are:

1. Combine the times of the fastest three finishers in the pursuit event. The team with the fastest combined time shall prevail.
2. If a tie still remains, go to the tied teams’ relay squad. The team with the best placing relay squad shall prevail.
3. If a tie still remains, go to the tied teams’ fourth place finisher in the pursuit event. The team with the best fourth place skier shall prevail.

A reminder than all fluorocarbon waxes/additives are banned for high school competition, including sections and the State Meet.

Schedule

Check the section schedules for exact details!

Dates, Locations and Teams

• Monday, Feb 3rd
  
  • Section 6 - Hyland Lake
    
    • Benilde-St. Margaret's, Groves Academy, Breck, Coop: Heritage/Providence (Heritage Christian, PACT Charter, Providence, RiverTree), Hopkins, Minneapolis Camden, Minneapolis North Community, Coop: Orono/Delano (Orono, Delano), Robbinsdale Armstrong, Robbinsdale Cooper, St. Louis Park, Wayzata.
      
      
• Tuesday, Feb 4th
  
  • Section 1 - Hyland Lake
    
    • Coop: Winona (Winona, Cotter, Hope Lutheran), Coop: Jordan (Jordan, Belle Plaine), Coop: Eastview-Rosemount (Eastview, Rosemount), Coop: Lakeville Nordic (Lakeville North, Lakeville South), Coop: Prior Lake-New Prague (Prior Lake, New Prague), Eagan, Apple Valley, Hastings, Lake City, Northfield, Simley, Visitation.
  • Section 3 - Battle Creek
    
    • Blake, DeLaSalle, Minnehaha Academy, Coop: TCA-Liberty-Great River-Avalon (Great River, Avalon, Liberty Classical, Twin Cities Academy), Coop: South Tigers (Minneapolis South, Minneapolis Roosevelt), St. Paul Academy, Coop: St. Paul Central (St. Paul Central, Open World Learning), St. Paul Highland Park, St. Paul Humboldt, Two Rivers, Coop: PWER (Woodbury, East Ridge, Park).
  • Section 8 - Maplelag
    
    • Alexandria Area, Bemidji, Coop: Brainerd H.S. (Brainerd, Pequot Lakes), Detroit Lakes, Fergus Falls, Coop: Little Falls (Little Falls, Pillager), Moorhead, Red Lake, Coop: Sartell - St. Cloud Cathedral (Sartell, St. Cloud Cathedral), St. John's Prep, TrekNorth, Wadena-Deer Creek, Willmar.
      
      
• Wednesday, Feb 5th
  
  • Section 5 - Theodore Wirth
    
    • Coop: Andover H.S. (Andover, Legacy Christian), Anoka, Blaine, Champlin Park, Coon Rapids, Coop: Elk River/Zimmerman (Elk River, Zimmerman), Maple Grove, Coop: Osseo (Osseo, Park Center, Totino-Grace), Coop: Parnassus/Spectrum (Parnassus, Spectrum), Rogers, Sauk Rapids-Rice, Coop: St. Cloud Apollo (St. Cloud Tech, Rocori, St. Cloud Apollo). 
  • Section 7 - Giants Ridge
    
    • Coop: C-E-C Lumberjacks (Cloquet, Carlton, Esko), Cook County, Duluth Denfeld, Duluth East, Coop: Ely (Ely, Northeast Range), Grand Rapids, Coop: Marshall Hilltoppers (Marshall, Lakeview Christian), Coop: Mesabi East Area (Mesabi East, Mountain Iron-Buhl, Rock Ridge), Mora, Coop: Proctor/Hermantown (Proctor, Hermantown, Stella Maris), Two Harbors.
      
      
• Thursday, Feb 6th
  
  • Section 2 - Theodore Wirth
    
    • Bloomington Jefferson, Bloomington Kennedy, Coop: Burnsville/Shakopee (Burnsville, Shakopee), Coop: Chaska/Chanhassen Storm Hawks (Chaska, Chanhassen), Eden Prairie, Edina, Holy Family Catholic, Minneapolis Southwest, Minneapolis Washburn, Minnetonka, Mound Westonka, Coop: Richfield (Richfield, Academy of Holy Angels).
  • Section 4 - Battle Creek
    
    • Forest Lake, Irondale, Mahtomedi, Minneapolis Edison, Coop: Mounds Park Academy (Mounds Park, Nova Classical), Mounds View, North St. Paul, Roseville Area, Coop: Spring Lake Park/St. Anthony (Spring Lake Park, Centennial, St. Anthony Village), St. Paul Como Park, Stillwater Area, Tartan, White Bear Lake Area.
      
      

Check the Racing Outlook for any late updates.

Coverage

We plan to be out covering all of the metro area section meets, but could use some help covering the outstate sections -- section 7 and 8.   If you can contribute photos from those section competitions, please reach out.